On Underground Abortions, Anti-Choice & Pro-Life

[ccharles000]

ABC News has an article up about the fact that, surprise!, women are still having "underground" abortions. To summarize, there is a lot of information out there on the internet that lets you know what combination of drugs and such will induce a miscarriage. (My senior thesis was actually on the past, present and future of abortion, so I can add that there are several books that also have this info.) It seems that women are accessing and using this information in growing numbers. Now researchers want to know why.

I understand the need for actual statistics, but I can venture a few guesses as to what they will find:

1) Access to abortion is becoming quite the tricky issue. There are partial-birth abortion bans (FYI, this is a phrase anti-choicers contrived to fuel their own claims), parental consent/notification laws, public funding requirements, etc.

2) Abortion laws and regulations vary from state to state. Here is a breakdown of state differences from the Guttmacher Institute.

3) There is a general distrust of doctors in this country. Am I the only one who finds that I need to tell the doctor what might be wrong with me rather than the other way around?
EDIT: In getting caught up in my schpiel, I forgot to urge people that they should not stop seeing their doctors! GO TO YOUR DOCTORS! Yes, our health care system is not perfect, but doctors are trained and fully capable of keeping us safe in situations like these.

4) (Related to #3) Our health care system needs an upgrade. Stat. Abortions are expensive and many lack the resources to get abortion. Combine that with the fact that doctors can refuse to give you an abortion, and you've got a whole lot of obstacles hidden in the fine print.

5) There is serious shame and blame attached to abortion. This increases when dealing with people who have religious families and people from other cultures. Some women would rather see the problem go away quickly and play the denial game afterwards.

6) Access to the correct information is sometimes tricky. With all of these rules and obstacles, there is plenty of room for confusion. The article mentions a Mexican woman who just did not have all of the facts straight:

"She knew that abortion was legal in the U.S.," Grossman said, "but she thought that is was only for people who are legal residents."

http://secondinnocence.blogspot.com/2008/08/on-underground-abortions-anti-choice.html

[glowing]

1. AND access to items like b.c. and condoms are slashed for "NO SEX"

programs by men who run around with prostitutes in diapers and engage in "wide-stances" in random bathrooms.. Hello.

[Nikki Stone1]

2. Some of those "home remedies" for abortion can kill the woman

Especially the herbal ones. Going to the doctor is a must in these situations.

What the anti-woman's-life people have done is shut down abortion clinics so that there is almost no access to abortion in many places, especially in the heartland.